The impact of anxiety on sleep quality

A significant relationship between psychiatric disorders principally depression and anxiety and insomnia is well-known in general population. Ahigh percent of insomnia sufferers report anxiety symptoms. Anxiety is also frequently seen in medical patients whom complaints of sleep problems are often prominent.

250 outpatients with various medical complaints participated in the study and completed Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index(PSQI) and Beck Anxiety inventory (BAI).

The patients reported moderate anxiety on BAI. Significant correlations were found between anxiety and four components of sleep; sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration and habitual sleep efficiency.

The correlation of sleep complaints with anxiety symptoms indicated a high interrelatedness between anxiety and sleep complaints. Insomnia is a disorder of hyperarousal. Nonetheless inqury into mechanisms of arousal regulation could further explain the anxiety and sleep disorders as well.